Proposed United States annexation of Santo Domingo

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The proposed annexation of Santo Domingo was an attempted treaty during the later Reconstruction era, with precedents under earlier administrations, but re-initiated by United States President Ulysses S. Grant in 1869, to annex Santo Domingo (as the Dominican Republic was commonly known) as a United States territory, with the promise of eventual statehood. President Grant feared some European power would take the island country in violation of the Monroe Doctrine. He privately thought annexation would be a safety valve for African Americans who were suffering persecution in the US, but did not include this in his official messages. Grant also believed that the acquisition of Santo Domingo would help bring about the end of slavery in Cuba and elsewhere. The proposal to annex Santo Domingo aligned with a broader US foreign policy strategy in the Reconstruction era, including pursuit of new markets in the Caribbean to absorb the increasing industrial output of American businesses. The island...

Read on Wikipedia · Image Taylor, James E., 1839-1901, artist, Public domain